CA1171488A - Safety indicator for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A safety indicator for vehicle, which indicates the actual status of the vehicle by lamps of various colors mount-ed at the head and tail of the vehicle. In a preferred embodiment, a photo-interrupter is used to control the actions of the indicator lamps and headlights sensing the location of the needle on the speedometer, and switches mounted on the accelerator and brake pedals respectively are used for further control. The lamps are serially connected with small bulbs provided on the instrument panel, respectively, so that the driver may check whether or not the indicator lamps and headlights are operating properly.

Description

1 ~r~ 8 This inven-tion relates to a safety indicator for a vehicle, and in particular to one which is capable of indi-cating the acutal operating status of a vehicle to the drivers of other vehicles on the road.
The density of traffic is con-tinuously increasiny as a result of economic development and accidents are thus correspondingly increased. According to statistical infor-mation, most accidents are due to the inability of drivers in responding rapidly to sudden changes in road conditions.
Such accidents are particularily readily caused by vehicles moving at high speed such as on the freeway resulting in collisions.
Since the traffic density is greatly increased, it is difficult to maintain a suitable distance between moving vehicles and the view of the driver may thus be obstructed by the vehicle in front. Therefore, under many circumstances, the driver of the following vehicle can anticipate the motion of the leading vehicle only by means of the indicator lights provided on the tail of the leading vehicle. For example, direction indicator lamps show that the vehicle intends to turn or change lanes and the stop lamp shows that the driver has applied the brake. Although this type of indicator system has been used for many years and is effective at somewhat lower speeds, it is not adequate and cannot provide a complete indication of the operating status of the leading vehicle.
The conventional indicator system cannot clearly indicate, in addition to the turning and braking motions of the leading vehicle, whether or not the vehicle is accelerat-ing,-or sliding, or the driver is preparing to apply a brake or is having problems. Therefore when the driver of the leading vehicle finds that the road conditions are bad, .

~ 17I4~8 releases the accelerator and prepares to apply the brake, the driver of the Eollowing vehicle will not recognize this situation and take any evasive action until the bral~e of the front vehicle is applied and the stop lamps light up.
This may cause a chain collision.
When the leading vehicle stops because of for example problems, the vehicle itself has no means of indicat-ing such a situation. Although the red lamps on the tail of the vehicle may light up at night, they cannot indicate whether or not the vehicle is moving. In addition, the in-creasing intensity of the red lamps over the normal driving lights when the brake is applied at night is also difficult to distinguish.
The headlight of a vehicle can be selected to be a high beam or low beam. No matter whether the headlight is on high beam or low beam when the vehicle is temporarily stopped e.g., at a traffic light, the headlights thereof tends to dazzle other drivers and thus the headlight has to be turned off. This causes certain inconvenience to the driver.
Morever, in the conventional indicator system, the driver cannot determine whether or not the various indicator lamps are working properly without leaving the car. Especial-ly in the case of the stop lamp, which will not light up until the brake pedal is actuated, a person alone cannot simultaneously actuate the pedal and check the stop lamp provided at the tail of the vehicle. At least two people are needed in such a checking procedure.
In view of the above mentioned disadvantages of the conventional indicator systems, the present invention provides a safety indicator which can clearly indicate the operating ~ ~1488 status of a vehicle.
The present lnvention also prov~des a device fox temporaril~ turni~n~ off t~e headli~hts when the vehicle is stopped and turni~ng it on agai~n when the vehicle movPs.
The present invention again provides a device for the drivers determining whether or not the various indicating lamps are working properly without leaving the car.
According to the present invention therefore there is provided a saEety indicator system for motor vehicles including speed dependent switch means arranged, when a pre-determined vehicle speed has been exceeded, to trigger switch means to supply current to a plurality of lamps through the intermediary of furt~er switch means, which lamps are indi-cative of predetermined functions of the vehicle, said further switch means beins operatable in dependence upon acceleration or retardation of the vehicle; a first lamp circuit having an intermittently operable device and being coupled with a current source, when the s~itch means is not triggered and the speed dependent switch means remains inoperative while the predeter-mined vehicle speed ~as not been exceeded, for intermittentillumination of the lamps of the first lamp circuit; a second lamp circuit opera~le when the speed dependent switch means triggers the switch means and the vehicle brake is arranged to operate the further switch means to provide constant illumin-ation of the lamps of t~e second lamp circuit which is thus indicatlve of the vehicle brakes being applied; a third lamp circuit having a further intermittently operable device, which th~rd lamp circuit is opera~le when the vehicle acceler-ator has not been operated be~ond a predetermined level to provide interm~ttent illumination of t~e lamps of the thiXd lamp circuit ~ch is i~ndic~t~ve of movement of the vehicle belo~ a known speed~ or, t~at the accelerator pedal has been ~ 1 7 ~
released and the brake can be applied; and a fourkh lamp circuit operable when the accelera~o~ pedal o~ the vehicle is moved be~vond the predetenm~ned level to operate said fur-ther switch-means and disconnect the third lamp circuit from thecurrent source, to provide a constant illumination of the lamps of the fourth lamp circuit wnich is indicative of the vehicle operating normally a~ove said known speed.
Thus the present invent:ion utilizes, in addition to the conventional yellow direction lights and red stop lights, a green light to indicate that the vehicle is travelling with --.

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a constant speed or is accelerating, a green blinking ligh-t to indicate that the vehicle has ceased to accelerate and there is a possibility of a brake being applied; a red blink-ing light to indicate that the vehicle has stopped or travels only with a very low speed of for example about 2 km/hr.
This invention uses a speed sensitive means and switches mounted respectively on the brake and accelerator pedals to control the variation of light signals. The head-light switching on and off may be operated manually or auto-matically. Bulbs corresponding to the indicator lamps andheadlight are provided on the instrument panel so -that the driver may determine whether or not the lights are operating properly.
The present invention will be further illustrated by way of the accompanying drawings in which:
Fig. 1 is a circuit diagram for safety indicators according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the mounting of the speed sensitive means of the safety indicator on the speedometer of the vehicle.
The safety indicator uses the battery 1 of the vehicle as the power source. The left portion surrounded by dotted line in Fig. 1 is the speed sensitive means 2 which may be mounted on a printed circuit board (not shown).
The speed sensitive means 2 includes a relay 3. The coil 4 of relay 3 is connected at one end to the positive terminal of the battery 1 and at the other end to the negative terminal of the battery 1 via the collector-emitter path of transistor 5.
The base of transistor 5 is connected to the posi-tive terminal via the photo sensitive diode 7 within the X

1 J7~488 photo-interrupter 6 and resistor 8. The li~ht emitting diode (LED) 9 is connected with its anode to the positive terminal via resistor 10 and with its ca-thode -to the negative terminal of battery 1.
The normally closed contact 11 of relay 3 is con-nected to a red blinking light circuit A. The red blinking light circuit A includes a winker :L2, a parallel circuit form-ed by two sets of small red bulbs :L3a, 13b and red lamps l~a, 14b connected in series respective:Ly. The other end of the red blinking light circuit A is connected to the ground (negative terminal).
The normally open contact 16 of relay 3 is connected on one hand to a brake switch 17 and on the other hand to a headlight switch 18 via a switch 41. The brake switch 17 is a single pole double throw (SPDT) microswitch which is mounted - on the brake pedal and actuated by the pressure applied to the brake pedal. The switch 41 is used to select the manual or automatic control of headlight and the headlight switch 18 - is used for connecting the power for headlight.
The normally closed contact 19 of brake switch 17 is connected to an accelerator switch 20. Switch 20 is a pressure sensitive switch which will not be actuated until the pressure applied thereto has reached a predetermined level.
Switch 20 is mounted on the accelerator pedal of the vehicle so as to be actuated by the pressure applied on the pedal.
It will be noted that the said predetermined pressure amount may be adjusted to adapt to various vehicles and drivers, which will be further described.
The normally closed contact 21 of switch 20 is con-nected to a green blinking light circuit B. The green blinking light circuit ~ includes a winker 22, a parallel circuit X

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formed by two sets of small green bulbs 23a, 23b and green lamp 24a, 24b connected in series respec-tively and a fuse 25.
The other end of green blinking light circuit B is grounded.
The normally open contact 26 of switch 20 is con-nected to a green light circuit C including a parallel circuit formed by two sets of small green bulbs 27a, 27b and green lamps 28a, 28b connected in series respectively. The green light circuit C also includes a fuse 29.
The headlight switch 18 is connected to selector switch 30 for selecting the long-range light or short-range light. The selector switch 30 is connected on one side to a serial network of small bulb 31 and long-range lamp 32a and on the other side to a serial network of small bulb 31b and short-range lamp 32b. A fuse 33 is also provided in the head-light circuit D.
The normally open contact 34 of brake switch 17 is connected to a red light circuit E. The red light circuit E includes a parallel circuit fomed by two serial networks of small red bulbs 35a, 35b and red lamps 36a, 36b, respectively, and a fuse 37. The other end of red light circuit E is grounded.
The photo-interrupter 6 within speed sensitive means

2 may be mounted in the speedometer 38 in the manner shown in Fig. 2. The needle 39 of speedometer 38 is provided with a strip 40 at the free end as shown in Fig. 2, in which the strip 40 is located in the space between photo-sensitive diode 7 and light emitting diode 9 of the photo-interrupter 6. It will be noted that the photo-interrupter 6 may be mounted in other relationships with the speedometer 38.
The lamps 14a, 24a, 28a and 36a are mounted at the tail of the vehicle and the lamps 14b, 24b, 28b and 36b are I l7148~ :
mounted at the head of the vehicle. The only requirement for the mounting of these lamps is that they should be provided in visible positions. The small bulbs 13a, 13b, 35a, 35b, 23a, 23b, 27a, 27b, 31a and 31b are mounted on the instrument panel of the vehicle. The long-range lamp 32a and short-range lamp 32b are mounted on the head of the vehicle in a conventional manner.
When the driver inserts a key into the ignition switch (not shown) of the car to connect this circuit to the power supply, the safety indicator is in a static condition.
While the needle 39 of speedometer 38 ~Fig. 2) is indicating the position of 0 km/hr., the strip 40 remains in the photo-interrupter 6. Therefore the light of light emitting diode 9 cannot reach the photo sensitive diode 7. The high resis-tance of photo sensitive diode 7 keeps transistor 5 in the cut off region.
The coil 4 of relay 3 does not operate without a current flow. Therefore the current flows from the positive terminal of battery 1 to the red blinking light circuit A
via the normally closed contact 11. The serial networks of red bulbs 13a and 13b and lamps 14a and 14b are blinked by means of the winker 12. Thus the red lamps provided on the head and tail of the vehicle and the bulbs on the instrument panel blinks. Under such conditions neither the pressing of the accelerator pedal nor that of the brake pedal will affect the blinking red lamps. This blinking red light may show that the vehicle is in a stopping status.
~ hen the vehicle is put into first gear, the accel~
erator pedal is pressed to accelerate the vehicle, however the red blinking light will not be changed until the needle 39 of the speedometer 38 is rotated a predetermined angle by ~( ' ~ ~7~488 the travelling speed of the vehicle so as to move -the strip 40 out of the photo-interrupter 6.
When the vehicle speed has reached a certain speed (e.g. about 2 km/hr.), the rotation of needle 39 will move strip 40 out of photo-interrup-ter 6. It is to be noted that a speed of 2 km/hr. is very s ow and may be readily obtained by slightly accelerating the vehicle. The movement of strip 40 out of photo-interrupter 6 causes the light of light emitting diode 9 to be projected on the photo sensitive diode 7. The photo sensitive diode 7 then presen-ts a low resistance and transis-tor 5 conducts under the bias current flowing therethrough.
Then the coil 4 of relay 3 is energized and the ~ normally open contact 16 is connected to the positive terminal of battery 1. The operation of red blinking light circuit A
ceases. The power is fed to the green blinking light circuit B through the contact 19 of the brake switch 17 and the nor-mally closed contact 21 of the accelerator switch 20. Then the green bulbs 23a and 23b mounted on the instrument panel and green lamps 24a and 24b on the head and tail of the vehicle blink under the control of winker 22.
As it is mentioned in the above, the accelerator switch 20 will not be actuated until the pressure applied thereon has reached a predetermined level. In a preferred embodiment, the actuating pressure level is adjusted to three-tenths of the pressure applied when the accelerator pedal is pressed do~in completely (top-speed). In other words, the green blinking circuit B keeps the lamps therein blink-ing until the accelerator pedal is pressed over three-tenths.
This indicates that although the vehicle is moving, it has not reached the top speed thereof or the accelerator pedal has been released and there is the possibility of applying ~ ~ 7~ 48B
the brake.
When the accelerator pedal has been pressed to a certain degree so that the vehicle is -travelling with top-speed and -the accelerator switch 20 is actuated, the green blinking light ceases the circuit C via contact 26 and the green bulbs 27a and 27b and green lamps 28a and 28b are lit up. This indicates that the vehicle is travelling normally.
If the driver has found that the road conditions are bad and tries to slow down. The switch 20 is returnéd to the normal mode when the accelerator pedal is released to be under the predetermined pressure. The current is again fed to:the green blinking light circuit B
and this causes the green steady signal to revert to the green blinking signal which indlcates that the vehicle has ceased to accelerate and there:is a p~ssibility of t'ne brake being applied.
When the driver presses the brake pedal, the actuat~
ed brake switch 17 feeds the current to the red light circuit E through contact 34. The red lamps mounted on the head and tail of the vehicle and the red bulbs on the instrument panel light up and indicate that the brake has been applied. Both the green light circuits B and C are deactuated since the current is no longer fed to the switch 20.
~ hen the vehicle is slowed down by the brake until the needle 39 has fallen within the predetermined range, the strip 40 returns into the photo-interrupter 6 and the relay 3 is deenergized since the bias for transistor 5 is out. The current is again :Eed to the red blinking circuit A through contact 11 and therefore the red blinking signal lightes up.
~ henevex the vehicle is stopped the blinking red signal will show this condition for the drivers in other vehicles.
Moreove:r, the headlight circuit D will not have the power supply until the speed of the vehicle has exceeded a _ 9 _ X

1 1 7~4~8 predetermined level. When the vehicle is used at night, the headlight switch 18 is closed and the switch 30 may be used to select the long-range lamp 32a or short-range lamp 32b.
When the contact 16 of relay 3 is actuated by the speed, the current may be fed to the selected headlight lamp and the current will cease when the relay 3 is deenergized due to the low speed. Thus, the headlight lamps 32a and 32b are turned off during the stop status of the vehicle and are turned on again when the vehicle moves again.
The switch 41 is provided for the selection of manu-al control or automatic control of the headlight lamps.
The functions of the safety indicator for the vehicle of this invention are set forth in Table 1 for better reference.

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Table 1 VEHICLE STATUS INDICATING SIGNAL MEANING
. _ 1. The vehicle has Please note the stopped. status of this 2. The vehicle has Blinking vehicle and be just started but Red careful.
a predetermined Light speed has not been reached.

The speed of -the 1. The vehicle is moving but has vehicle has reached Blinking not reached a steady speed.
the predetermined Green 2. The road con-standard but the Light dition is bad, the vehicle is vehicle has not yet not accelerat-ing and there reached top-speed. is a possibili-ty of ap~ying a brake.
_ The vehicle is travelling with a steady speed or Steady ~0 accelerating (the Green The vehicle is accelerator pedal Light travelling steadily has been pressed or accelerating.
being at a predeter-mined degree).
., A brake is being The brake of the applied to the Steady vehicle has been vehicle. Red applied and the Light vehicle is slowing down.

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By means of the safety indicator of this invention, all the various statuses of the vehicle may be clearly shown to the other drivers. Thereiore the drivers in other vehicles may have sufficient time to take proper action and the fre-quency of accidents may be lowered to a minimum. This inven-tion is especially effective and useful when vehicles are travelling on the freeway. Since all the lamps such as the red and green lamps or the headlights have respective serially connected small bulbs mounted on the instrument panel, the driver may check them without leav:ing the vehicle. When the vehicle stops such as before a traffic signal, the headlight may ~e automatically switched off and will not inconvenience drivers in other vehicles, which headlights will be lit up when the vehicle moves again.

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Claims (14)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A safety indicator system for motor vehicles including speed dependent switch means arranged, when a pre-determined vehicle speed Has been exceeded, to trigger switch means to supply current to a plurality of lamps through the intermediary of further switch means, which lamps are indi-cative of predetermined functions of the vehicles, said fur-ther switch means being operatable in dependence upon accel-eration or retardation of the vehicles; a first lamp circuit having an intermittently operable device and being coupled with a current source, when the switch means is not triggered and the speed dependent switch means remains inoperative while the predetermined vehicle speed has not been exceeded, for intermittent illumination of the lamps of the first lamp cir-cuit; a second lamp circuit operable when the speed dependent switch means triggers the switch means and the vehicle brake is arranged to operate the further switch means to provide constant illumination of the lamps of the second lamp circuit which is thus indicative of the vehicle brakes being applied;
a third lamp circuit having a further intermittently oper-able device, which third lamp circuit is operable when the vehicle accelerator has not been operated beyond a predeter-mined level to provide intermittent illumination of the lamps of the third lamp circuit which is indicative of movement of the vehicle below a known speed, or, that the accelerator pedal has been released and the brake can be applied; and a fourth lamp circuit operable when the accelerator pedal of the vehicle is moved beyond the predetermined level to operate said further switch means and disconnect the third lamp cir-cuit from the current source, to provide a constant illum-ination of the lamps of the fourth lamp circuit which is in-dicatiye of the vehicle operating normally above said known speed.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, including a headlamp circuit which is selectively connectible between manual and automatically operable modes.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein in said automatic mode the headlamp circuit is operable to provide a constant headlamp light beam when the speed dependent switch means triggers the switch means.

4. A system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein each of the first to fourth lamp circuits has two sets of indicator lamps, one set for location at the rear of the vehicle and the other set for location at the front of the vehicle.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, including a speedometer on which the photo interrupter is mounted.

6. A system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the speedometer has a needle with a projection at its free end, the projection being located in the light path of the photo interrupter when the needle indicates below said predeter-mined speed.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the photo interrupter comprises spaced light emitting and photo-sensitive diodes and the projection is movable between the diodes to control the passage of light therebetween.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said switch means is a relay.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the further switch means includes pressure responsive switches connected with the foot brake and accelerator pedal of the motor vehicle.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein each indicator lamp is provided with a respective monitor lamp connected in series therewith and arranged to be located within the vehicle for monitoring operation of the indicator lamps.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein light emitted from the first lamp circuit is red.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein light emitted from the second lamp circuit is red.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein light emitted from the third lamp circuit is green.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein light emitted from the fourth lamp circuit is green.